Our Survival
by DeathBySunlight
Summary: *Note, none of these characters are from naruto and this is a completely original work. Not a fanfic.* A young man named Viribus woke up in a forest with no memories, when he is transported to a void, and is told by a voice that he must regain his memories and grow stronger to kill him. And so, his adventure begins, to unravle his past and why he is there.
1. Chapter 1

I opened my eyes to see a dark night sky, the stars shining and blinking in a graceful twilight dance. I felt grass underneath me, wet and cold, soaking my arms and cloths, my hair laying flat against me. I sat up and looked at my surroundings.

'Where am I? What is this place? It smells of sap and wood.' I had thought, my mind muddled and foggy.

I tried to think of how I got here, but nothing came, only a sentence that had no meaning for me. "Go, young Viribus. Go and bring yourself glory!" That was my name, Viribus. I had just realized I had forgotten my own name. I tried to remember my mother, but I couldn't even get a picture of her face. The same was with my father, nothing came, and I was terrified.

I searched through what I remembered, and what I found made me stop and sweat. I only remembered 3 things; my name, the sentence, and the very present. The world started to swirl and mix together, it started to make no sense, my senses stopped working, I stopped feeling the ground beneath me, I stopped hearing, I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing, and my nose was non-existent. Then the world cleared, and I stopped breathing.

I was in a dark place, a void of all light, like a black hole. I tried to look around, but it wasn't any use, there wasn't anything to see, so I started to walk, which had my head swirling at the possibility, and just walked in a straight line. I continued walking till my mind was attacked with a bright flash that blinded me, making me fall to my knees.

I went to open my eyes, but it was too damn bright. I sneered and growled lightly in anger and annoyance. Here I was, in a fucking void with no bloody memories of my life and now I'm blinded. Fucking great.

"Welcome, to my little powwow young challengers." I crumpled to the ground as the voice spoke louder then anything that could ever be in existence, making my mind feel as if it were melting under the sonic waves. "I know you must all be feeling angry and a little upset about this situation, but I will explain myself...in time." I arched my back and my eyes seemed to pop out of my skull, my mouth open in a silent scream, or I was now deaf, I didn't know, I just wanted the voice to stop. "But until I feel like explaining why I chose to leave you all with no memories, I must explain the rules of this world for you." I had long sense covered my ears, the voice didn't even get slightly quieter. I was in agony, tears were flowing down my face, and my mouth was still wide open.

Then I felt that I was being watched, and I felt the coldest chill run down my entire body. I felt a pressure push down on me, and it was only then that I realized the voice was no longer talking, that it was quiet finally, but it was replaced with a sense of death, that I would die in any moment I could, and will, die. It suddenly vanished, and I wasn't relieved in the slightest.

"I guess I should wrap this up, yeah?" The voice spoke again, and my mind split into a million pieces. "You young challengers aren't ready to handle even my voice yet, guess I'll just give you the rules instead of telling you." My heart was beating fast, almost too fast, and I felt my eyes start to burn in mind numbing pain, causing my already half destroyed mind to break further down into nothingness. "With all this said, I must be gone, a few of you have already died from a mind break. Good luck, Younglings. And welcome, to Mors."

I felt the ground beneath me fall away, and I was finally relieved in knowing I would leave this place and fall into the quiet unknown.

My eyes shot open, instantly seeing my vision covered in green. I pushed up and saw that I was in the forest again, it was a bit brighter now, seemingly dusk, and I could now see much more, like how the trees seemed to have moving bark.

The bark seemed to look normal, only that it flowed upwards like a reversed waterfall, only slower. I went and touched it, and it was solid. It felt like regular bark and it was just moving, that was all that seemed different. I backed away.

"What in the actual nine levels of hell is this place?" My voice was deep, and rough. I gasped at the fact I had not realized what my own voice sounded like. I started to realize that I couldn't remember anything about myself other then my own name, I didn't know my age, I didn't know my height, I didn't know my last name, if I had any parents, or a family or anything at all.

Then a scroll slammed into my face with the force, and grace, of a freight train. It caused me to go and smash my head against the ground, my nose bleeding. I groaned and held my nose. I looked at the scroll and wasn't too impressed.

It was plain, it had no markings and was white in colour, the two ends were a boring brown colour with nothing else. It looked like it was bought at a dollar store.

I picked it up and opened it, curious as to what I would find. I found the loose part of the paper and pulled lightly downwards, not wanting to tear it. There was writing inside, which was expected, and it seemed to be writing by someone with pretty bad handwriting.

It read: "Dear Youngling:

This scroll has come to you to tell you the rules of this world, Mors. It has also come to tell you of the rules of your challenge. Now, let's do this.

You may have noticed that you seem to be missing all of your memories, and don't worry, they will come once you find them. It is part of your challenge, after all.

As for you challenge, it is quite simple. Survive. The longer you survive, the more memories you'll gain, and the stronger you'll get, So it is in your best health to read this.

As you have, most likely, noticed, you have no memory of anything, but have the knowledge of what and where you are. This is part of the Challenge, you must recover your memories. As you recover them, you will grow stronger, and so, it leads to the next part. You must fight and kill me.

As you may have noticed, your mind almost broke when I was talking. In order to fight me, you must recover your memories, and find the other Younglings, and together, you must all battle and defeat me. Fun, yeah?"

I stopped reading and tried to process what I had just read. This guy had taken my meories to put me inside a world with how many others and we must kill him to complete the Challenge and recover our memories to grow strong enough to do kill said man, but, we must also find all the other challengers in order to work together and battle him to even have a chance. Fuck me. I lowered my head back to the scroll to continue reading.

"Now I know that sounds like a lot to do, and it is, but it doesn't end there! In order to recover your memories, you must survive in this world long enough to recover said memories. That should be difficult enough.

What do I mean by survive? Well, this world is crawling with monsters that will not hesitate to rip your inards out and eat them infront of your dying corpse. You can not run from very many monsters, as they tend to smell you no matter what you do, so fighting is usually the best option, instead of tiring out and being hunted by a creature of the night. Oh, and at night, the monsters go hunting, hoping to find some sleeping, easy to catch, supper. I hope you can survive, itll be entertaining to see you suffer. I'll be seeing you in a while. have fun, Youngling." With that, the scroll stopped unrolling and was blank. I sat there, just staring at the scroll for a few moments, processing once again.

After a few minutes, a bubble of frustration started to grow in my throat, blocking out any words to come out. I tried to think back on if I was ever this frustrated before, but nothing came, nothing about anything came. I felt the frustration skyrocket, so I looked up to the early morning sky, my nose still bleeding slightly and trickling down my chin and my neck now, and opened my mouth, and closed my eyes tight.

I let loose a yell, one that held all of my frustration. A scream that made my throat raw and strained my vocal cords. A roar that shook the trees and scattered the birds that lived in the trees. I felt myself running out of breath, but I continued, wanting to show this guy how much I hated him, how much I wanted to kill him. As I ran out of breath and stopped yelling, I heard a loud snapping sound to my right. I gasped for breath, and looked out to my right, considering how I'll survive if it was a monster. I thought about it for a second, before standing up and putting my fists up, looking to where the snap came from. If I was going to die, I'll die fighting.

I heard the crunching of sticks coming closer, rapidly aproching. I was scared, terrified, but I stood my ground and clenched my teeth. "Well come on then! Hurry up you bloody monster!" I yelled out, my voice stronger then I was expecting. The snapping of twigs and sticks stopped, and I heared something I thought I wasn't going to hear for a long while. A voice.

"Crikey mate, no need to be agressively yelling at a friend." The voice was deep, deeper then mine, and held an accent that I couldn't place. The snapping continued till I saw the man, and I wasn't expecting what he was wearing. The man that came out of the trees was wearing a brown Kangaroo leather hat with tuffs of brown hair sticking out of it, reaching almost his shoulders in length. Covering his upper body was a white T-Shirt saying: "G'day Mate!" On his lower body was a pair of black jeans and black sneakers. His skin was a light brown, more of a tan then anything really. All in all, not what I expected.

"Sorry." I said quickly, putting my hands down hesitantly. For some reason, he struck me as familier, but I couldn't remember.

"You okay there, mate? You seem to be bellowing like an ankle biter going for a meltdown." The man said, pointing to my face. I was confused by what he said, till I felt something hit my hand. I looked down and saw a clear liquid on my hand. I reached up and touched my face, feeling tears flowing down my face. "You good there mate?" I nodded and wiped my tears with the sleeve of my blue hoodie quickly. I sniffed and wiped my nose.

"Sorry, dunno what came over me there." I apologized. The man just laughed big and deep, the sound louder then you'd expect. he walked over and slapped my back, making me stumble a bit forward. Suddenly, my mind flashed to a scene, and I saw the man looking down towards me, his arm on my back. The man had started to walk forwards with a smile on his face, and said something, something I couldn't understand. I felt a wave of despair as I saw the man face forwards and put his hands up as claws, then he disapeard and I was back in the forest again, the man still laughing and grinning.

"It's fine mate, we all need a good cry every now and again, especially with what's going on." The man said. Suddenly, something clicked, I reconized his accent. It was an Aussie accent. I chuckled at not getting it the first time I heard his voice. The Aussie man chuckled with me. "Guess I should introduce myself. I'm Ethan, no last name given." The man, Ethan, stook out his hand for a shake. I reached out and grabbed his upper forearm in a monkey grip, which felt right for me. I grinned and shook his arm in a short, strong, shake.

"I'm Viribus, no last name given." Ethan laughed again, and released my arm. We stood there for a few moments in silence, trying to think about what to think. Finally, I found the sentence that would start up a conversation and also help both of us out. "Do you know what in the Nine Hells is going on?" After I spoke, Ethan lost his smile and instead had a thin line, almost too serious too suddenly. He shook his head and sighed.

"Probably as much as you know." Ethan said, waving his hands infront of his face in, what I could recall as, the Aussie salute, getting some bugs out of his face. "Did you get a scroll in the face?" I nodded to his question, grabbing the scroll from the ground where I dropped it, holding it up for him to see. I then relized the height differnce between us. I could only guess that he was, at the very least, 6' 4", towering over my 5' 8". It bugged me for some reason, irritating me that he was ahead of me, litterally, in something thats impossible to control. Ethan took the scroll from my hands and opened it.

"Can I see your scroll?" I asked, keeping my arm out. Ethan nodded and handed me his scroll. I opened it and was almost imedietly disapointed. It was the exact same thing, except for the name at the very top. It read: "Dear Halfling:" It was weird, why was I Youngling, while he was Halfling? Shouldn't everyone be called Youngling, or even Halfling? Before I could think about about it any futher, Ethan snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Nothing that's helpful, sadly." Ethan said. Handing me my scoll while I closed his and handed it back. I nodded, also dissapointed. Nothing giving me a clue as to our memories. I sighed. "Cheer up, we just gotta survive long enough, yeah?" Ethan put a hand on my shoulder, seemingly trying to comfort me. "With that roar, a lot of people would be heading this way." He smiled, tilting his head to the side a bit. The hair on the side of his head moved slightly, showing his ear. The ear though, was pointed, and long. 'Like an Elf from a fairy tale, or a fantasy novel.' I thought back the the scene I had seen, where Ethan had done something that had either helped me, or damned me, but looking at it again, it didn't seem like he was damning me, more like he was sacraficing himself. I tryed to think on the words he had spoken, trying to figure out what he was saying my mouth reading, and why it had caused me such anguish. I tried to think on it, I tried and tried, but nothing was coming. Nothing at-!

"OI! VIRIBUS!" Ethan's yelleing snapped me back to reality, and I looked up at him. He now had both hands on my shoulders, and had lowered himself to be eye level with me. I felt like a child. I shook my head and focused back on the pointed eared Aussie. "Your head choc-a-bloc of thoughts? Come on, we've got to go. Gotta find the other people while they're still alive." He stood up after I nodded and turned around to look at the clearing. I saw a shift in his hair, his ears twitching it seemed. "I say we take this path, it's close to arvo now, no need to waste anymore time." Ethan pointed to a worn down path to our left. That surprised me a bit, as I hadn't noiticed it at all sense waking up here the first time. I felt a spike of envy, but pushed it away. There wasn't time for that shit.

"Yeah, let's do it." I spoke my agreement, nodding with my words. I was still completely and utterly confused as to why this was happening, as to why we had to be thrown into this stupid situation, why our memories were taken for the entertainment of a bloody scroll throwing dick. I started to get pissed, irritated and scared. This guy wanted us to fight him, but he has the power to take our memories, make some people go completely insane with only his voice and could probably kill us with nothing but a bloody thought. I sighed again, and started to follow Ethan, who had started to walk a few seconds ago.

Time to find the rest of the Survivors, and figure out why the hell this is happening to us.


	2. Chapter 2

Me and Ethan had been walking for hours when it started to get dark, so we stopped in a tiny clearing to rest for the night. I stayed on gaurd incase a monster or wild animal were to come and attack us. Ethan just laughed, saying it was a tactic to scare us all. I only grunted and stayed vigilent. Ethan chuckled before closing his eyes and laid down, slowly drifting to sleep. I stayed up, glaring at the edges of the clearing, daring a monster to come into my line of sight. Eventually I felt my eyes start to close, so I laid down a few feet from Ethan and fell into dream land

I woke up to the smell of burning wood and smoke. I felt someone grab my shoulder and shake it roughly. My eyes snapped open and I sat up quickly looking around to see the forest on fire and Ethan beside me, but, he was dressed differently, and he had a bow with a quiver full of arrows on his back. His shirt was now a robe of some kind, dangling by his ankles in length and his hair was straighter. I was confused. Ethan said something, but I couldn't understand what, but I nodded anyways.

I got up and ran ahead of Ethan and stopped to look at the damage, trees burning and people running around putting out the fire with buckets of water. Out the corner of my eye, I saw a flaming creature launching fire everywhere and burning my friends. I glared and felt energy course around me, my eyes burning. I lifted my hands, and the fire responded, flying towards me and collecting into a ball infront of my hand. I clenched my hand into a fist, and the fire launched at the giant flaming lizard, smacking it on its side. It did nothing, not surprising me, and strned towards me and opened its mouth. Fire spewed out, rushing toward me at increadible speeds. I dived out of the way and continued running, rolling once my hands touched the ground and pushed myself up, the fire burning the back of my shirt. I grunted in pain and rushed to our well, power flowing towards my eyes once again, only instead of burning, I felt a cooling sensation in its place. I called out to the well, and it responded in full, water shooting out of it in a gyser and flowing to the fire coming towards me, doucing it out and creating steam. The water continued to the flaming lizard, which was backing away.

The lizard screeched, and the fire surrounding it turned a blazing, bright blue, the heat scyrocketing quickly, trees catching fire from the heat alone. As the water reached the lizard, it spews more fire, bright blue, and all the water evaporated. The fire doesn't stop though, and it started to come towards me. I dive into the well, grabbing the edge and slamming my body into the cobble stone. I felt the pain of the heat on my fingers, burning them black. I scream out in pain, but it was better then death. The fire stops and I try to pull myself up. I was almost at the point I would be fine, but my hands give out, and I started to fall. I gasped, and try to grab the edge. I had used all the water trying to douse the lizard, so if I fell, that'll hurt, a lot. My nails ripped off, causing more pain, before someone grabbed my arm in a monkey grip, pulling me up with surprising strength. I landed on my stomache while my savour landed on their back. I looked up to see who saved my life, and wasn't all that surprised.

"Thanks Ethan." I said, standing up and hissing in pain from my hands. My legs suddenly gave out and I collapsed to my knees. I looked up to see Ethan's hands glowing, light travling ffrom me to him. I growled. "The hell you doing Ethlando? I need to help!" Ethan just shook his head in response.

"You're in no condition to help, with you hands useless, and you can't turn with the amount of energy you have, so let me take care of this, yeah?" Ethan smiled, and turned around, walking towards the blue fire lizard. He turned around to look at me one more time, tears flowing down his cheeks. "Take out that bastard this run, will ya?" I called for him to stop, but I was too weak. Tears washed down my face, and I reached out to Ethan, but it was all useless. I saw him engulfed in fire, and the lizaed schreeched one last time, before everything was silent once more, and I collapsed in exhaustion

I woke up with a start, whipping my head around to see that I was back in the clearing from before. I was gasping for breath, a cold sweat covering me from head to toe. I felt tears on my face and I wiped them away. 'That was a memory, wasn't it?' I thought, still gasping for breath. I stood up and looked around, trying to calm down and to make sense of what that memory meant. I saw Ethan there, but he was different, calmer, plus he didn't have the accent. His clothes were more formal and his hair was tamer. I was full of power, controling fire and water to the degree of second nature, and my eyes were reacting to the elements, burning for fire and a cooling sensation for water. It was all so strange, how could I do all that? Could I acually do that? Or was it all just a really elaborate dream? I didn't know and my head was starting to hurt. I sighed and walked back over to the tree I was sleeping against.

I heard a bird singing its tune, seeming like it was early enough to catch the worm. I gave a quiet chuckle at my funny assumption. I looked up and saw a bird fly over the clearing slowly, almost lazily, and I felt a pang of jelousy in my chest. I glared at the bird without relizing it. 'This morning is going great.' I thought, sighing. 'First I wake up to a very convincing dream and then get jelous of a bloody bird for some reason.' I just sighed once again, continueing to think on the dream, and what it meant. It was a few minutes later that I heard Ethan start to stir and wake up. I glanced over to him, watching as he stretched his arms over his head. There were a few small twigs in his hair and a leaf. I chuckled a bit and looked back, seeing another bird fly across the clearing. God, I really hate birds.

"Mornin' Viri!" Ethan said, breaking my concentration on hating birds. I shook my head and looked up at Ethan and scoweled.

"Don't call me that." I stated, glaring up at the taller man. Ethan just snickered and pointed to a break in the clearing.

"Well, let's get going now, Viri." Ethan said, smircking as my glare intensafaid. Ethan broke out laughing and started to walk towards the path. I sighed in annoyance, but I grinned a bit. This was enjoyable, having another person with me, even if he was extremly annoying when he wanted to be. I stood up and jogged to catch up to Ethan, not wanting to be left behind.

We walked for an hour or two when we first encountered something strange. It randomly walked infront of us, waddling like a penguin. It had a beak of a duck, the body of a beaver, and a tail of a cat plus the paws of a lion. It wasn't very big either, only reaching half way up my shins. It had stopped its waddle and looked at us, its small black eyes looking at us up and down, seemingly judging us, and we just looked at it curiously, trying to figure out what the hell it was. This went on for about a minute, when it suddenly grinned like a human would, showing of razor sharp teeth, blood stains covering said teeth. Ethan and I both took a step back at the sight. Then it all went to hell when it spoke.

"This'll be a good meal." Its voice was deep, seeminly like a growl from the back of its throat then a voice. My mind registered its sentence when it started to grow. My eyes had widened at the sight of the, at least, 15 foot Duck Beaver Cat Lion towering over us. It started to growl and stalk towards us, its legs creating giant foot prints engraved in the ground. Ethan looked at me then the way we had come from. I nodded and stepped back slowly. "Oh? You think you can escape? How amusing." It was at that point I had turned and booked it out of there, running back to where we had come from. I heard the monster schreech and charge towards us, faster then we were running. I turned to look behind me, hoping Ethan was running with me, but I felt a rush of air and saw no Ethan. I looked towards the front and saw Ethan pulling away at fast speeds, ditching me.

I was about to call out to Ethan, wanting to curse him for leaving me, when I felt something peirce my side and send me flying. For a few seconds I felt wieghtless, almost floating, then I stopped, my back flaring up in white hot pain, blocking out everything else. I was laying there, curled up in pain and probably screaming. I was dizzy, shaking now. 'Fuck!' I thought, looking down to my side, seeing a blood river flowing out of me. It was starting to get really hard to breath, and I was scared, no, terrified. I finally looked up, and saw the monster looking down on me, its sickening grin still in place. 'Fuck it! If I'm going down, I'm gunna make it work for it!' With those thoughts out of the way, I pulled myself up, using the tree to keep my balence with one hand, the other holding my side. Its grin got wider.

"Let's go!" I yelled out at it, glaring with all the hate and pain I could, my eyes burning with tears. It continued to stare at me, looking down on me. I felt hot rage rise in my stomache, reaching the boiling point fast. "Don't you dare." I mumbled, looking down to the ground.

"What did ya say, supper?" The monster said, mocking me. "If you want to say your last words, speak up!" I glared harder into the ground, grinding my teeth almost to the point of breaking them.

"I said;" I looked up, my tears stopped, but the burning stayed. "Don't you dare look down on me!" A feeling came to me, a burning desire to see this fuck's guts all over the ground. I raised the hand covering my side, palm facing the monster, covered in blood. I felt power flow through my vains, travleing to my hand, and I grinned.

"What a waste of breath." The monster scoffed, walking towards me. "Guess I'll take that hand first." With that said, it rushed towards me, it's mouth opening wide, hoping to devour me. My grin grew, the power reaching a point I knew was enough to blow him over.

"Boom, bitch." With that said, I let the power go and an explosion launched my arm back painfully, most likely dislocating it, but it was worth it, as I saw the monster get burnt to a crisp, screeching in pain for a few seconds, before falling silent. "F-f-fuck!" I exclaimed, holding my shoulder. "Huh, heh. Fuck yeah." With that said, I collapsed, the pain becoming too much to handle anymore. 'I at least went out in a blaze of glory.' I thought as my vision started to get dark. I grinned one last time as the darkness overcame me, and I closed my eyes.

I don't know how long I was out for, but it seemed like while. I started to smell before anything else, and it smelt like a hospital, the smell of disinfectant burning my nose. Then I heard talking, but it was all meshed together, like a dozen voices talking about a dozen different things at the same time. Then, the worst cam, I felt. I felt my side, then my back, and it was a firey pain, pulsating every few seconds. I grit my teeth hard, trying to bare it the best I can. Then I opened my eyes, and saw the deserter. He was just sitting there, looking at me concerned.

"You." I growled out, the venom in that one word made him flinch, and I wasn't satisfied, I wanted him to squirm. "You fucker. You left me to die." My voice was getting deeper and deeper with each word I spoke, I saw him move back a bit, I got even more pissed. "Don't you dare run away. I want you to stay put." With that said, I raised my arm, only to see it in a cast. I grunted, but raised my other arm, this one with inly a few bandages, and pointed my arm towards Ethan. "Boom." After I spoke, I was hoping for an explosion, but nothing came. I felt nothing. I saw Ethan sigh in relief, which didn't help my mood one bit.

"Ey there mate, lemme explain myself, yeah?" Ethan said, speaking for the first time. I glared pure hate at him in response. He sighed, but sat down in the chair again. "I had no idea I had left you behind. You seemed to be standing still, so did the monster, but I was still moving. I didn't noitice this for a few minutes, so when I did turn around, I saw you and the monster standing still. I stopped, about to call out to you when everything atrted to move.

"At that point, you were far, far away. I knew that, but I could see you perfectly and clearly, but no sound from you was heard, even when I saw you screaming when that monster whacked ya into that tree, I couldn't hear anything. I tried running back in time to save you, but you already had that covered with that explosion. Jesus that was a giant ball of heat, I could feel it." Ethan had sat back, looking upwards with his head resting on the back of the chair. After a few minutes of silence, Ethan looked back at me, his look told me that he wasn't looking forward to this part. "When I finally got back to where you were, you were bleeding badly, like a puddle of your own blood surrounding you bad. I didn'y know what else to do, so I put pressure on thw wounds, hoping to stop it. Nothing was working. I was scared man." Ethan looked down at his hands, they were shaking. Ethan's face was pale, I saw sweat forming. He didn't continue.

We sat in silence for another few minutes till I heard someone walking towards us. The sound was echoing in my head, the clicking of heels was very prominate. I was getting a headache, just from the sound alone. After a moment of agonizing pain, the sound stopped and I looked up to the front of where I was laying. There I saw a woman standing there. She had long black hair pulled into a low pony tail, she was wearing a lab coat that reached down to her ankles and underneth the coat, she was wearing black jeans with a grey shirt. That was all normal, till I loked back at her head and saw a pair of red fox ears, twitching every few seconds or so. Then I glanced towards her hit, where I saw a red, fluffy, fox tail moving side to side lazily. The hell? What was she?

Suddenly, a name came to the forefront of my mind: Hybrid. Information flooded my head about the species. They were a half human half animal race that had specialized in hunting and tracking with their hieghtened senses and abilities. They had run the fur trading companies and the main source of any kind of meat. I was ovewhelmed and was started to get a hadache once again when the Hybrid woman finally spoke.

"If you're gunna be staring this long, why don't you take a picture, yeah?" Her voice was soft, but it comanded respect. Her mouth formed into a smirk that showed off her sharpened canines. For some reason that I couldn't understand, that smirk annoyed me to no end, it made me want to wipe that smirk away with a bloody punch. I growled a little. "Oh? Do I bug ya, Viribus? Too bad, I was hoping we'd get along like last time." That confused me.

"I was hoping we got along like last time."

"Get along like last time"

"Like last time"

"Last time."

"The hell ya mean?" I growled out. "I don't know you. I don't know anything about what in the hell is happening! What the hell you mean!" I was nearly shouting, all my anger and confusion finally bursting out, unleashing my feelings in the most vilont way I could right now. Yelling. "Tell me what's going on, Hybrid! I want to know! Why the hell can I launch explosions out of my palms, huh? Why can this guy," I pointed at Ethan; "run at super sonic speeds? Who th fuck are you? Who the fuck am I?" I stopped yelling, gasping for breath. The Hybrid was shocked, but she had quickly recovered. I turned towards Ethan, who was staring at me in pity. I growled.

"Listen, you need to calm down, you just woke up, and your body doesn't need the stress that comes with yelling." The woman said, holding her hands up in the stop motion. I glared at her for a second, my hatred spiking a bit, before I let out a sigh and figured she was right. I should be giddy with the inforamtion that I can creat explotions from the palms of my hands, that's awesome as hell!

"You're right, sorry." I said, relaxing back into the bed I was in. "I just want to know what the hell is happening." The Hybris woman nodded in understanding and smiled lighty, happy I had agreed to her wishes. "So? Got any answers for me?" I asked, arching an eyebrow up. The woman chuckled and stcuk out her hand towards me, I took it.

"Well, let's start with who I am, yeah?" She said, smiling a bit more. "I'm Yami Winther, a Fox Hybrid. Nice to meetcha." I grinned and shook her hand lightly.

"And I'm Viribus, a guy who can make explosions from his palms." I said, electing a small giggle from Yami. She shook her head, seemingly amused about my answer.

"Oh, you are so much more, Viribus Celeritas." Her smile turned into a grin, one that promised mischeif. "You are not 'a guy who can make explotions from your palms.' You are something much more powerful then a mere human." Here, her grin grew wider. "You are..." She trailed off and I leaned towards her in anticipation. "Gunna have to find that out as your memories return!" I completely froze.

"Huh?" Was the smartest response I could muster. "No, no, no, no. You gotta tell me now." I insisted, more the a little annoyed by her stunt. My mouth was now a scowl.

"This is part of the rules, Viribus." I jolted in shock when I heard Ethan speak again. He had just been so damn quiet. "We aren't allowed to tell eachother what species they are. It came in another scroll from The Voice. We can't tell eachother anything about the other that we know that they don't. We can only hype it up." I sighed in annoyance. "Well, at least we are in civilazation again, Viri." I nodded at what Ethan said, at least we were..what?!?!

"Wait what?" I yelled out, whipping my head everywhere to look. Sure enough, I found a window and saw buildings. I grinned, my chest filling with gratitude.

I looked back to Yami, and she smirked again. "Welcome, to Challenger's Haven."


	3. Chapter 3

I spent an extra day in the infirmary to heal fully, which was extremly boring if you ask me. I spent a few hours, after Yami and Ethan had left, trying to get the explosion to happen again, but made no progress. It was starting to frustrate me to no end, just why couldn't I get my power to work? I gave up after 4 hours of failure, after 4 hours of, not even, a spark. After that, I just drifted on and off from sleep, waking up when Yami had brought me some food, which I had wolfed down faster then even I thought possible, and passed out yet again.

The next time I had opened my eyes, Ethan was slapping me in the face, yelling about something like a tour. I grumbled and shoved his hand away and tried to go back to sleep. After a few moments of peace, Ethan had slapped me again, only way harder then last time. I jumped up and yelled in pain, glaring at him. Ethan just took the glare with a loud laugh and dragged me to the bathroom next to my room, shoving me in with a pile of clothes and closing the door, ignoring my protests of not wanting to do anything but sleep. I had sighed and put on the clothes without another word of complaint. If I knew this guy well enough, then he wouldn't change his mind unless you beat him unconscious, even then, you might have to kill him. I was definitly annoyed.

After putting on the clothes, which consisted of a black shirt with the words "Danger: Idiot Beside Me" printed on, a pair of grey camo pants, and black shoes, I looked into the mirror and, for the first time, I saw my face. It was a shock to me, having seen my own face and not reconizing it for a second. I had dark purple hair with dark blue eyes and a tanned face, probably from the two days of walking with Ethan. I stared at my face, trying to memorize every detail then I turned away and walked towards the door. As I walked out of the bathroom I saw Ethan chatting up with a cute nurse, which ended with a nasty look and a slap to his face, leaving a red hand print. I had laughed out loud at that point, happy karma got him good. I walked up to him and stood beside him.

"I don't even know what I said wrong." Ethan said, watching the nurse storm away. I chuckled again and pat him on the shoulder.

"It was nothing you said man." I said in response, watching him sigh in releif, before he glared at me. I burst out laughing again, having the time of my remebered life.

"Oh, jump up your own ass and die!" Ethan shot back, crossing his arms and turning away, an amused scowl on his face. After I had calmed down a bit, he turned back to me with a large smile and grabbed my shoulder. "Now that you're dressed and awake, let's get to the entrance, Yami should be waiting for us for a tour of the town." I nodded and followed him towards the entrance, getting giddy to see around town and, possibly, regain some of my memories. Yesterday, Yami had said that a tour around town might help with regaining my memories, or at least, some of them.

It took us a few minutes to navigate through the maze like infirmary, getting turned around a few times and a couple deadends. After the first minute, I was starting to get a bit anxious, as the only people I have seen were Yami, Ethan and the nurse that slapped Ethan, no other patients, no docters wandering around. It was nerve racking to say the least. Finally, we reached the entrance and saw Yami smoking a few meters from the entrance, watching the small amount of people walking past her, waving to a few of them. She was wearing different clothes today, obviously. Today, she was wearing a pair of brown cargo shorts that went past her knees, a pair of red flip flops and a t-shirt that said "Fuck Off" in big bold letters, covering almost the entire shirt. This time, her hair was loose, going to the middle of her back, it was a complete mess of tangled hair and knots, she didn't brush it today it seemed. I called out to her and she turned around and smiled when she saw us. She threw down her smoke and stomped it out with her foot, and walked towards us.

"So, how's Dumb and Dumber?" She asked, pointing at Ethan then me. Ethan rolled his eyes and I scoffed and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Not bad, how's the Vixen?" I retorted, grinning as I saw her face shift into annoyance. I was about to burst out laughing, when I felt pain burst from the top of my head. I stepped back and grabbed my head, hissing in pain. "The hell..?" I trailed off as I saw the smirk on Yami's face, and the fist that was hovering in the air. I growled.

"How's the head, Eggplant?" Yami said, putting her fist down to her side, cocking her hip to said side. I scoffed at her and turned away, glaring in a random direction, seeing a building that was about a soft breeze away from falling over. I fully turned towards it, pointing at the building.

"What's up with that?" I asked, looking towards Yami, who was now scowling. She sighed before pulling out another cigerette and a plain looking flip lighter, flicking it on and lighting the smoke, taking in a slow, long pull, before exhauling a large cloud.

"That is the result of the latest attack, just a day or two ago." Yami said, looking a bit more tired then just a minute ago. What she had said got me worried. Attack?

"Attack?" I voiced, looking towards Yami. "I thought that this place was a safe place? Was I wrong?" I crossed my arms and fully turned towards Yami, frowning. Yami just took a long drag of her smoke, exhaling another large cloud.

"No where is safe, everywhere is just death." Yami spoke quietly "You Challengers are supposed to save us all, yet it seems we need to save you guys before you return the favour." Yami glared at me, then turned that glare at Ethan. I took a step back in shock. "And at your current state, you're all useless, can't even fight a low danger monster without coming within an inch of dying, panicking without thinking. Even running from a fight you could win without use of all your limbs and you were blindfolded." Yami scoffed. My head started to spin, the world's colours mixing together into a blob of colour. My head started to throb, a pain that was equal to a train track spike being hammered into my skull erupted. I collapsed to my knees, clutching my hair, pulling it to try and subside the pain.

And with a flash, the pain was gone, and I was left on the ground with shaking breath and a cold sweat. After a moment, I saw Yami standing over me, casting a shadow, her smoke hanging from her scowling mouth. She scoffed at me, gestering to me dismisivly. "You can't even handle a headache, can you, Celeritas?" Yami said, her voice full of mockery. At the mention of that name, I got a flash of a younger, happier Yami, and a rush of memories came to me.

I was around 11 or 12 years old, laying down on my bed, relaxing for the day, happy for the peace and quiet from the normally busy house. Sadly it didn't last much longer, as my parents came in, along with another two people I didn't reconise. Behind the two strangers, I saw an older looking girl, maybe 13 or 14. She had short black haie and a pair of fox ears, along with a small, fluffy, fox tail tucked around her waist. I got up from my bed and walked towards them, smiling largely.

"Son, meet Mr and Mrs. Winther and their daughter Yami Winther." Said my father, gestering towards the strangers and the shy looking girl. My smile got a bit bigger, while the older girl seemed to try shrink into herself.

"Hey there!" I said walking towards her, holding out my hand in a greeting. "My name is Viribus Celeritas! It's nice to meet you!" I held out my hand for her to shake, which she did after a few moments of staring at it. She grabbed it tentivly, and spoke for the first time.

"Huh-huh-hell-hello, Viribuh-buh-bis." She voice was shaking, but it was a start. I grinned widely and shook her hand gently.

It was 3 years later, I was 15 and Yami had just turned 17, we were walking through the forest , trying to see if we could find any lost supplies from travlers or not. So far it was going good, we had found a fire starter kit, a leather skinned bottle for water, and a small camping knife. Yami had staked claim to anything that involved fire or was sharp enough to skin a stick, so I only got a water bottle. I didn't mind, I was just happy to spend time with my friend, chatting away about useless things. Yet there was something that was plauging the mind of Yami, and I wanted to know what was on her mind.

"So what's got your mind hostage?" I asked after a lull in the conversation. Yami looked surprised, before shaking her head in defeat, a small smile on her face.

"Only you could read me better then my own parents." Yami said in response, before sighing, looking completely exhaughsted. "There are rumours going around that the God is rising again, and the time of Challengers will start again soon." I nodded, I heard the same rumours too, not likeing what it meant. I looked at Yami's face a bit closer, seeing tears start to form in her eyes, threatening to spill out.

"Yami, what's wrong?" I stopped as she had collapsed to her knees sobbing, giant, ugly globs of tears rolling down her cheeks. I kneeled beside her, hugging her and rubbing her back, trying to confort her.

"I don't want you to become a Challenger!" Yami yelled out, looking up at me, glaring harshly into my eyes. I stopped breathing for a second, surprised at her outburst. "If you're chosen, you run! Promise me!" Yami yelled out, her voice falling to a whisper while saying the last part. I started to breath again, and was filled with guilt, as I knew as well as she did, that there was no getting out of becoming a Challenger, there was no running, there was no refusing.

"I wont become a Challenger, I'm still not trained well enough. I can barely control my powers still." I said, my voice soft and comforting. But it did nothing for Yami, it did nothing for me.

We stayed there for a while before going home.

"WILL VIRIBUS CELERITAS COME FORTH!" The announcer didn't voice it as a question, it was ademand. I had stopped cold, my blood freezing in it's place. I looked towards Yami, and instantly felt my heart stop. She was glaring death at the announcer, and I knew what that meant, she was about to yell at or run at what she was glaring. So, in order to stop Yami from being a complete idiot, I grabbed her in a hug, trying to make her feel how sorry I was. I felt tears start to soak into my shirt, her tears. I was completely devastated. I released her and turned towards the stage, where the Challengers go to be shown off like some kind of collectable. I started to walk, trying desperatly to block out Yami's sobs and pleas for me to stop. I had failed in that aspect horribly.

I got up to the stage and turned to look at the townsfolk I had grown up with all my life. I looked at the town I had grown up in. I looked at Yami, who was staring at me with wide, desperate, pleading eyes. Then I looked down at the ground, unable to bring myself to look at the people I will never see again.

I gasped, looking around at my surroundings. I was back in the town, still on my knees with Yami.

'Oh God, Yami.' I thought, feeling my shame come back full force.

Still standing overtop of me, still casting a shadow on me, still glaring at me. I felt tears start to form in the corner of my eyes, but I didn't care, I remembered my best friend again. "Yami, I'm so sorry." I spoke, looking back down towards the ground, ashamed. She looked confused at what I said.

"It's nothing to be sorry about, you guys didn't choose to loose your memories-" Yami started to say, before I cut her off.

"No!" I looked back up at her, my tears flowing freely down my face, my hands curled into balls. "I'm sorry I didn't keep my promise! I should've listened to you!" Yami looked startled, before her eyes widened in surprise, her hand covering her mouth as she took a step back. I took a quick glance to Ethan, who looked way too confused, but I shook it off and looked back towards Yami. "I'm so sorry." I said one final time, closing my eyes tight to try to stop the tears.

"You remember?" Yami asked, her voice soft, weak even. I opened my eyes back up, looking at her and I nodded. Yami's eyes seemed to soften, then went and turned to steel. She removed her hand from her mouth and took a deep breath before speaking once again. "What exactly do you remember?" Her voice was stronger, but it still wavered. I thought back and pulled the three memories I had of her.

"I remember when we first met, you being super shy was funny, and I also remember the forest walk we had when we walked through the forest and talked about the rumours of the God rising and the Time of Challengers." I took a second to compose myself, before saying the next memory, not likeing it one bit. "And I remember when I was choosen to become on of the Challengers." I watch for her reactions, and I was shocked. She didn't look happy, not in the slightest, in fact, she looked livid.

"You only remember our crappiest memories?" I saw her canines sharpen and grow past her lips, but not by much. Her fingernails had also grown, only they became claws. "I look for you, hoping to bring back all of the good memories of eachother, and finally, I get a chance. After fucking 6 years of searching, and I find you not a day over fucking 17 and nearly dead." She started to stalk towards me, getting even more pissed, which doesn't seem possible. "So, after dragging your sorry ass over into your old town, healing you, feeding you, and you remember the worst parts. The day we met eachother, and later, that very same day, you broke every one of my fingers, broke my foot and left me in the forest crying. That day I had a break down, you fought a monster an hour later, transforming and breaking my leg! Then the worst day imaginable." She stopped in front of me, grabbing my shirt and lifting me up to her eye level. I'm frozen solid in complete fear, and panic. I didn't remember any of what she was saying. "The day you were choosen to be a stupid, fucking, Challenger. You walked up there, looked over the town, looked over at me, and left us. Left us to those fucking monsters." She threw me down, where I smashed my head on the ground. I looked back at Yami, who was now starting to go back to the way she was before. She glared at me for a bit longer, before turning around and stomping off in a, seemingly, random direction. I watched her walk away till I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Ethan, who was cringing.

"Mate, you really seemed to have been a major asswipe." Ethan said, patting my shoulder. I only nodded, unable to talk from the shame I felt. "Well, it's best we get a basic layout of this place if we're stayin' 'ere, yeah?" I nodded again, starting to stand up. I felt Ethan grab my arm and lift me up, helping in the best way that seemed possible for him. "Well, let's get goin' then." I nodded, and followed after Ethan, barely paying attention to my surroundings.

I glanced back at where Yami had stormed off to one last time, with a single thought going through my head. 'Fuck you, past me.'


End file.
